January 7, 2011

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish-Dr. Seuss

Developer Quote: "Through his rhymes and riddles, Seuss's intention is clear: teach children to read in a way that is both entertaining and educational."- COST: $3.99 - RATING: 4 Stars(Cost/Rating subject to change per the App Store)

Just because you're grown up doesn't mean you still can't enjoy classic childhood stories by yourself or with your kids! Dr. Seuss stories were some of my favorites, and even though they didn't make a whole lot of sense, the lyrical cadence of the words was very soothing and made learning to read just a little bit easier! The pictures were a little old-fashioned, a bit nonsensical, but thoroughly enjoyable to a child learning to appreciate print on paper. Now, Dr. Seuss's wonderful stories, riddles and rhymes are available on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad in more vivid color and larger than life than ever before! One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish-Dr. Seuss is a well-loved tale that teaches your child to recognize words, letters and sounds while being thoroughly entertained.

This electronic version of Dr. Seuss's book is even more intriguing than a traditional paper book because of the many features included. For instance, this book provides professional narration, background audio and enlarged artwork for each scene. To make it easy to know what word is being read in the narration, each one is highlighted as the story unfolds and, even better, the words zoom up when the pictures are tapped!

When you open the app, you will notice there are three ways to enjoy this story. You can choose any of the methods below for your reading pleasure:

- "Read to Me" — listen to the narrated story
- "Read it Myself" — read the book in its traditional form
- "Auto Play" — plays like a movie, automatically reading and turning pages.

I tried all 3 styles of reading the book, and being somewhat lazy, I enjoyed "Auto Play" the most! One of my favorite tongue twister lines are, "Bump, bump bump. Just jump on the hump of the wump of Gump!" What child wouldn't giggle when reading those lines! But there are many other excellent features associated with this e-book such as:

- Picture/Word association — words zoom up and are spoken when pictures are touched
- Individual words highlight and are read aloud when tapped
- Professional audio narration
- Custom background audio for each scene
- Features the beautiful, original art of Dr. Seuss

The name identifier showing what each item is when tapped is a great way for kids to mentally connect the letters they see to words they hear spoken every day. The graphics from Dr. Seuss's story are beautifully done and the cheerful music in the background paints a happy seaside tale.

COOL CONCLUSION: "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish-Dr. Seuss is entertainment at its finest because classic, rhyming stories are still the best type of education."